Youngstown ranked 10th for largest MSA

A study by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research ranked the Youngstown Metropolitan Statistical Area 10th among the 100 largest MSAs in the U.S. for economic performance from 2009 to 2012 in its June 2014 report, “America’s Top Metros: Who’s Leading the Recovery and Why.”

The Manhattan Institute ranked metro areas by growth in economic output or gross domestic product (GDP), personal income and jobs.

Youngstown MSA was sixth in per-capita GDP growth, 16th in per-capita personal-income growth and 36th in private-sector employment growth. The region was the top-ranked Ohio large-metro area, just ahead of Columbus and Toledo.

The Youngstown MSA includes Mahoning, Trumbull and Mercer, Pa., counties.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget says an MSA must have at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core area.

In addition, Smartasset.com ranked Youngstown the No. 1 city in the U.S. in its list of the “10 Best Cities for Healthcare Access for Your Money.”

Smartasset.com ranked cities by adding the number of primary-care physicians and hospital beds per 100,000 people (gathered from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care), and divided that by the median home- sale price in thousands of dollars in that city.

This gave Smartasset.com an average measure of health care access per $1,000 of home price.